概述
Chronic open-angle glaucoma tends to be asymptomatic and therefore many people will
not notice any symptoms until severe visual damage has occurred. Once diagnosed,affected individuals require lifelong monitoring for disease control and detection of prossible progression of visual damage. It is estimated that in the UK about 2% of people older than 40 years have chronic open angle glaucoma, and this rises to almost 10% in people older than 75 years. There are around 480,000 people affected by
chronic open angle glaucoma in England, who receive over a million glaucoma related outpatient visits in the hospital eye service annually. With changes in population demographics the number of people affected by glaucoma is expected to rise. Approximately 10% of UK blindness registrations are ascribed to glaucoma, and since with appropriate treatment blindness is largely avoidable, this figure suggests that there may be room for improvements both in case ascertainment and ongoing care following diagnosis.